Having spent the better part of two decades investing a great deal of effort to infuse our product line with credibility and validity, we are regularly taken aback by the proliferation of swampy used-car-salesman-like tactics some of our competitors use to peddle their products. Now we certainly understand that not everyone has the training, expertise and motivation to rise to the level of service that we provide at HairGenesis®, but neither can we comprehend the outright lies, distortions, misstatements and other such nonsense proliferating in this industry.
Without directly naming names, a few examples of shell games now rampant in the hair treatment marketplace will suffice to illuminate the swamp. The first shell game involves posting fake comparison pages that, to the casual observer, look like they were put up as objective information resources. The typical hair loss consumer, when confronted with this kind of website, is naturally relieved. Because the job of picking the best hair treatment product is "apparently" made much easier. After all, here is what looks like an easy to understand set of comparison talking points, and also what looks like a clear winner. But on closer examination, there is a dearth of actual objective data. More troubling, the fact that there's no verifiable contact for the entity behind the website is usually a dead giveaway that the site is a scam.
So how does this scam work? Let's see. First, the perpetrator creates a website with an honest sounding name like www.hairlosscomparisoninformation.org or something like that. Then, they populate the page with a bunch of fake quasi-comparison charts and graphs purportedly showing their product coming in first against various other treatment products commercially available. Then, they produce links to the supposedly tested product lines. However, as often as not, only the link to the product they are trying to sell actually functions. The other links either don't work or go somewhere other than where they're intended. It's as clever as it is dishonest. But it happens ALL THE TIME.
As a point of contrast, since HairGenesis® has come into the marketplace, we have always backed our product claims with critically peer-reviewed, scientifically published medical research --- i.e. the gold standard used by purveyors of legitimate pharmaceuticals, medical devices and the like. This isn't easy to do. It isn't cheap. It requires skill, tenacity, discipline. But in its absence, the hair loss consumer is left without a solid foundation of proof to rely upon. For the lay person, these concepts can appear daunting and difficult to easily understand. Unfortunately, some of our competitors take advantage of the consumer's lack of knowledge in frankly cruel and reprehensible ways.
Another little shell game some purveyors of questionable hair treatments have taken to is trumpeting the so-called 'results' of pseudo-scientific studies in which their product appears to do well. Here, a quick way to defrock such con artists is to inquire as to whether their "research" has been published in Medline, i.e. on pubmed.com. Medline is the worldwide clearinghouse for all valid medical research. It is where you will find NIH-level research. Suffice to say, any purported medical study not published on pubmed.com is probably not worth the paper its printed on.
Finally, one of the most reprehensible tactics used by some charlatans is to display a set of before and after hair photos. In the first photo, the subject has hair loss, but certainly not the typical form of pattern hair loss which affects more than 95% of those suffering from thinning hair. Instead, the hair loss appears as patchy and distinct with clearly demarcated zones of growth and loss, almost like a moth-eaten appearance. In the so-called 'after' photo, the subject is almost magically restored to excellent fullness and density, with the implication being that the product advertised is what caused the hair to come back.
Actually, in the before photo, the subject clearly displayed the clinical hallmarks of alopecia areata, a hair loss causing disease entirely unrelated to androgenetic alopecia (aka common pattern hair loss). Alopecia areata is known to cycle between episodes of visible loss and remission where the hair comes back on its own. So it is not unusual for an affected individual to sometimes have obvious hair loss at times, and no visible hair loss at other times. That certain marketers of less-than-honest hair treatment lines could foist such a dastardly forgery on the public defines the murky worm infested bottom of the swamp.
If there's a take home lesson from this diatribe it's this. Become an educated consumer. Enlist the assistance of a genuine advocate, such as your primary care provider, in helping you ascertain the best treatment options for your hair loss. Don't be quick to spend your money. Do your homework. See which hair treatments can actually point to empirically-valid, scientifically objective proof. Arm yourself with knowledge. Otherwise, you are basically playing Russian Roulette with your hair.
